I was fortunate enough to get a chance to use the new HPX 371 (world version of the 370) last month during my drive down from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Armed with just the stock Fujinon lens I shot mostly slow motion and tried to do the drive justice.

Obviously I have become known recently as an evangelist for DSLRs, doesn’t mean I don’t shoot on full size video cameras anymore…far from it! Over half my work is still on full sized video cameras and there is something so familiar and lovely about using one after a DSLR. All the limitations gone, nice and handy ENG lens, XLR inputs, headphone jack, proper viewfinder. The list goes on.

The camera is a replacement for the old HPX 301/300. A nice but flawed camera. The rolling shutter in full HD mode was not good and there was a fair bit of noise in the blacks. This new camera is a massive improvement. But don’t take my word for it! Check out the video review below by…er, me! Also do check out Barry Green’s nice and techy review on DVX USER. My review is purely an in the field how was it to operate and did I like the images…

Surround sound was captured using the Portamic Pro mounted on the Panasonic using a J-ROD

Comments

Phil you still mess around with those big boy cameras?! WOO *SHOCK AND AWE* I know your back must have been in knots after lugging that thing around. These SLRs make us big guys a little soft. Great video as always. Get well and enjoy NAB!

I am very inspired to see how much beauty you
pull from an ENG style camera. After watching
much of your DSLR content you gracioulsy post,
you can really see the differences. This is
very nice work, thanks very much for posting
this. I have a gig with the 300 this week on
a far less illustrious assignment. I will be
watching this peice with some friends on the
job, yet another voice bragging on you =)

Solid Review and beautiful footage as always. Given the same material (and choice of lenses) would you have chosen this same camera over one of the Canon DSLRs? Also, did you notice any issues with aliasing?

I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the TM700. I have last year’s TM300, so I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on workflow for this camera. Obviously the TM300 didn’t have the 60P mode, but it does have one of those “24P embedded in a 60i container” modes, and I would love to know the best way of dealing with that.

I also have a Canon 550D, so I’d be keen to hear any thoughts that you have on mixing footage from these two cameras in the same project.

Man that 60p came out really nice. Fairly good color coming out of that camera as well. This is why I’m hoping you’ll get a chance to review the XF305/300. It shoots basically the same as this cam, but I’m curious to see how it treats the rolling shutter issue. Tell Sara she did a great job shooting as well.

I was waiting to see you test this camera. I will be buying this camera when it comes out. I wanted to ask you…can you tell me your settings for getting the perfect slow mo for this camera? The images look great! You mention it in the video, but a couple parts of the video were hard to here.

I simply didn’t have the EX3 with me nor did I shoot a side by side comparison. Any thoughts I would make would simply be guessing. The only thing I can say is I much prefer Sony menus but LOVE the form factor of the Panasonic…

Jaw dropping short. Fantastic footage, great editing and the audio was brilliant as well (the water sound worked very well). Big Sur is perhaps my favourite place on earth and your film does it justice.

Nice work Philip,
A couple of comments.
In the review you mention doubling the shutter speed of the frame rate and my question is, Doesn’t this camera have degrees as in 180 degrees?
My other comment has to do with resolution.
It is hard to tell actual resolution on a super compress internet video, but I am sure that you reviewed it on a 1080 LCD at least. I know that most if not all of the short was shot 720/60p in order to get the slowmo, but Did you test it at the native 1920*1080 Intra and How did it compare to DVCPRO HD?
Thanks for the review.

hi Douglas, as usual with me, i didn’t do anything scientific. most scientific thing have ever done is zacuto shootout. All i wanted to do was see how it was to shoot with. Yes you can have degrees in the settings but I worry that they may confuse a lot of people.

Most of what I shot was 720p 60p although half a dozen of the shots in it are 1080p 24p and it looked fantastic. I didn’t touch DVCPRO HD, I just went with AVC intra. I know it’s not supported natively by FCP but I wanted to shoot using the best possible format with that camera. I captured as PRO RES HQ

Hello Philip,
Great work, as always. I think to switch from my actual HPX301to this new one, I agree with you about the ergonomy and the autonomy of these models! Very light, easy to use, very “pro” (but better with the Fujinon 13×3,5 lens). The only 2 problems with 301 were noise in dark situations and rolling shutter so if these are now improved, I will definitively switch asap it’s available in Belgium…
See u

Thanks for the tip on double the shutter speed of frame rate–60p in this case, for fluid slo-mo. I’m looking forward to trying that with the TM700 and am interested in your experience with it. What’s your workflow with producing this video?

Fun review, liked it, you should squeeze more of those in if you can – like perhaps the Panasonic TM700 1080P60. Love that final shot of the birds flying past. There’s no drive quite like PCH – the edge of the frontier, where a cowboy needs to swap his horse for a jet ski.

Philip I know camera manufacturers must love you. You have to ability to take their products and create truly magical visuals from them. I’ve been shooting video and photos for almost 30 years and I’m still aspiring to have an eye for visual composition like yours. Truly amazing. Would love to be your first AD just to learn how you do what you do.

Hey Philip,
If your ever down on the 101 again, check out the Hurst Castle, some of the areas you stopped where literally right next door. It is a very nice piece of property with great gardens and classic architecture. I would have to say that during the spring it is much more interesting then Skywalker Ranch. The Ranch doesn’t have a Greek Pool. It would be a blast for you!

I don’t know. I was there a few years back. I was running around with a Canon Optura Xi, plus external mic, and a few other attachments. Not one person said one thing to me, granted I was about 19 or 20 at the time. Non-the-less, the setup I had, stood out from the point and shooters.

It’s publicly owned by California, so it is considered an historical landmark.

I remember when I used to watch your reviews and want the cameras, I even bought an HM100 as a B camera and it is great. Now with DSLRs I am immune to pretty images if the sensor is smaller than S35. We are in awesome times.

Philip:
Great review!
Two things I’m curious about though; how significant
has the skewing on the 370 been reduced at 24/1080P compared to the EX-3, and has the quality of the lens glass been Improved over the 300?

My motivation about the concern on skewing was due to
a bit that seemed to occur to the lighthouse in the background
on the shot taken as you panned left tracking the bird’s flight, or was this apparent skewing due compression artefact over the Internet?

Now that you have reviewed both, which do you think will provide the most bang for the buck (in terms of quality and the feature set), the JVC GY-HM790 or the Panasonic AG-HPX371 for televising church services?

I am in the process of deciding which camera to purchase. Two cameras have come up. The Sony PMW350 or The Panasonic HPX371. Im swayed towrads the HPX371 “despite the 1/3 inch chips” becasue of the 422 AVCI recording. I have also heard good news on the CMOS sensors. I have read that Panasonic have made their 1/3 inch CMOS almost outperform sonyEX3s 1/2 inch CMOS.
My colleagues are swayed towards the PMW350 mainly becuse of the 2/3 inch censors. But im aware that the PMW350 does not record 422 but rather 420 colour space. 422 only recordable via the HDSDI output.

Have you used the PMW350 and what would you sacrifice censor/lens size or colour space.

The images produced are clearly stunning – even for a 1/3 inch chip. Are they better than the 7d/5d etc? From the great stuff that phil has shot on this reel, I don’t know, but the main advantage that this machine will have over any DSLR (like the JVC 700 too) is proper audio recording for ENG and documentary film work, fast operation and complete lens control.

Audio above everything else is the one thing that is constantly overlooked by filmmakers and poor audio wrecks the best shot every time – especially in docs. So based on what I’ve seen from this review, this Panasonic machine gets my vote ahead of any DSLR with all its bolt on contraptions..!

Thanks for the great review and insight Philip. We too are interested in perhaps purchasing this camera. As you can imagine, a university environment where I am in Bismarck, ND, presents all kinds of different video scenarios. Some environments involve controlled lighting but most are not (dark auditoriums, dorm rooms, chapels, gyms etc). With that said, some of our projects are productions and many are ENG related (mainly the sports shoots).

Given your experience with this camera, would you recommend the HPX 370/371 for shooting college sports?

I need to shoot some waves for my project, with slo-mo. I have a 550D but final project must be 1080, i guess twixtor will help.

Any advice on apertures as i have done tests with an ND, and keep loosing detail in the whites. It looks fine on the LCD screen, but on the mac it’s horrid. When i lower the aperture, the image looks dark on screen.